Proceedings of the International Conference on Art Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Artmaking as a Contemplative Act: Contexts and Synergies in the Creative Process
Jacob Lang
ABSTRACT:
This study employs an interdisciplinary literature review and illustrative case study to better define qualities of the creative process appraised as spiritual (i.e., related to a basic, meaning-seeking condition). With a social psychological paradigm, critical analysis of literature was coupled with an artist-scholar’s reported experience of music composition, production, and professional collaborations with painters and filmmakers. Prospective field notes were attained across four weeks, reflecting an analytical-interpretive, autoethnographic approach. Also included were artefacts and reflective commentary pertaining to cultural self-discovery. The making of one composition was chosen as the case (critical life episode). Given our idiographic orientation, music recordings and visual artworks will be shared with the audience. Findings from the literature review were contrasted with/organized according to themes from the qualitative data. Texts were decided with a committee of three faculty researchers in Canada with expertise in psychotherapy, arts-based research, and theology. Included were models originating in mythic semiotics, depth psychology, and empirical research. Modern and contemporary artists’ accounts of the spiritual were also explored. This study presents a robust, contextually informed view of the spiritual in the creative process, mindful to address differences among forms of artmaking or media. The composite description notably represented the vocabulary of Patristic and Medieval contemplative traditions, which is culturally significant in the case and the other consulted artists’ perspectives. Concepts such as creative synergia (συνεργοί) and the transcendent function demonstrate fresh applications in empirical aesthetics and mythic semiotics. The study illuminated questions that underly new, ongoing studies, especially concerning “sacred spaces.”
keywords: arts-based research, creativity, empirical aesthetics, lived experience, psychology of spirituality